Silicon Quantum Dots in a Dielectric Matrix for All-Silicon Tandem Solar Cells

Cho, Eun-Chel; Green, Martin A.; Conibeer, Gavin; Song, Dengyuan; Cho, Young-Hyun; Scardera, Giuseppe; Huang, Shujuan; Park, Sangwook; Hao, X.  J.; Huang, Yidan; Van Dao, Lap

doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/69578

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Recent Advances in Solar Cells

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Research Article | Open Access

Volume 2007 | Article ID 069578 | https://doi.org/10.1155/2007/69578

Silicon Quantum Dots in a Dielectric Matrix for All-Silicon Tandem Solar Cells

Eun-Chel Cho,¹Martin A. Green,¹Gavin Conibeer,¹Dengyuan Song,¹Young-Hyun Cho,¹Giuseppe Scardera,¹Shujuan Huang,¹Sangwook Park,¹X. J. Hao,¹Yidan Huang,¹and Lap Van Dao²

Academic Editor: Armin G. Aberle

Received01 Apr 2007

Accepted26 Jun 2007

Published28 Aug 2007

Abstract

We report work progress on the growth of Si quantum dots in different matrices for future photovoltaic applications. The work reported here seeks to engineer a wide-bandgap silicon-based thin-film material by using quantum confinement in silicon quantum dots and to utilize this in complete thin-film silicon-based tandem cell, without the constraints of lattice matching, but which nonetheless gives an enhanced efficiency through the increased spectral collection efficiency. Coherent-sized quantum dots, dispersed in a matrix of silicon carbide, nitride, or oxide, were fabricated by precipitation of Si-rich material deposited by reactive sputtering or PECVD. Bandgap opening of Si QDs in nitride is more blue-shifted than that of Si QD in oxide, while clear evidence of quantum confinement in Si quantum dots in carbide was hard to obtain, probably due to many surface and defect states. The PL decay shows that the lifetimes vary from 10 to 70 microseconds for diameter of 3.4 nm dot with increasing detection wavelength.

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Copyright © 2007 Eun-Chel Cho et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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